Minister Throws Biscuits At Flood Victims, HD Kumaraswamy Backs Him

Bengaluru: Karnataka minister HD Revanna is seen throwing biscuit packets at flood victims in a video that has been widely condemned after being posted and shared online.

The minister, whose brother HD Kumaraswamy is the Chief Minister of Karnataka, reportedly committed the photo-op blunder at a relief camp in Hassan district on Monday.

Mr Kumaraswamy has a curious defence: “There wasn’t enough space.”

He was seen taking biscuit packets from officials and lobbing them at flood-hit men, women and children sitting on the floor in front of him.

The video was soon looped by TV channels and circulated on social media. Mr Revanna was slammed as ‘insensitive’ by users on Twitter and Facebook.

Senior BJP leader S Suresh Kumar accused Mr Revanna of arrogance. “Dear Public Works Minister, throwing biscuits (at the flood victims) is not a public work… Is it the bloated ego, uncivilised behaviour… behind throwing biscuits?” he asked in a Facebook post.

The Chief Minister came to his brother’s defence and insisted that Mr Revanna’s act was “not out of arrogance”.

“I have noticed that the issue has come in TV, don’t take him otherwise. I have crosschecked… while distributing the biscuits, there were large number of people there and there was no place for movement,” he told reporters.

Mr Revanna was also “pained” at being portrayed this way, he said, adding “If he (Revanna) had asked someone else to distribute the packets, the issue wouldn’t have come up at all.”

The minister’s son, Prajwal Revanna, described his father as “a humble person” who wanted to help the flood-hit people at the camp.

“My father is a humble person. Since he has concern for the marooned, he had visited relief camps to given them succour,” Prajwal Revanna told reporters.